


Consequential

by orphan_account



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: All all their teammates want to do is lock them in a room and make them talk, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst with a Happy Ending, Friends With Benefits, Friends With Benefits To Lovers, Hockey Big Bang 2019, M/M, Miscommunication, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, avoiding big conversations, background mathew barzal/anthony beauvillier, but old college teammates make excellent plot devices, so much miscommunication, zach werenski is used as a plot device and i am sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 04:10:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21264854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Maybe Tyson shouldn’t be quite so willing to have regular sex with one of his roommates and best friends, especially when said roommate/best friend is an alpha, and even more so when Tyson is kinda sorta in love with this roommate/best friend, but sometimes Tyson doesn’t make the best decisions, and has to live with the consequences of his actions.Or: Tyson has a lot of sex with JT, doesn't talk to him about feelings, finds out he's pregnant, doesn't tell JT, whines to Dante and Mat, and somehow it all ends up okay.





	Consequential

**Author's Note:**

> I decided at some point last fall that I was going to participate in the next big bang, and when signups eventually rolled around I signed up pretty quick. I had about three fics in the works that all were shaping up to be the length I would need for HBB, and all I needed was the motivation to finish them. I did not take into consideration when I signed up the fact that I was about to graduate from college and move halfway across the country. I did not anticipate that I would then end up moving back across the country again three months later for a new job. I most certainly did not expect one of the main characters from each of those three fics to be traded to or from the Avs within the span of a week, killing any and all desire to write those fics.
> 
> Long story short, this fic is not any of the three that I had expected to finish for HBB this year, but is also the fic that in my decade of writing fic that I am proudest of.
> 
> I would also like to say that I was so, so fortunate to be paired with eafay70 for this big bang, and everyone should be sure to check out her podfic of the work!

Maybe Tyson shouldn’t be quite so willing to have regular sex with one of his roommates and best friends, especially when said roommate/best friend is an alpha, and even more so when Tyson is kinda sorta in love with this roommate/best friend, but sometimes Tyson doesn’t make the best decisions, and has to live with the consequences of his actions.

And sometimes, there are fewer consequences to having regular sex with JT and more major bonuses. Take now for instance:

Kerfy is out with his girlfriend and not expected to return until morning, and so Tyson and JT have decided to take advantage of the empty house to get it on without running the risk of letting Kerf overhear and give them more disapproving looks.

Tyson is spread out on the bed, his chest pressed against the mattress and his ass up, with JT spreading his cheeks with his big, big, hands, squeezing periodically while he makes what feels like a full-hearted effort to lick and suck up every last bit of slick that Tyson produces. Between the two fingers he has in Tyson--massaging his prostate near-constantly--and the broad licks from his tongue peppered with sucking kisses, Tyson feels like he’s going to spontaneously combust with pleasure.

“Please, please--JT--alpha…” he whines, hoping to get JT to either speed up a little and let him come or to just stick his cock in him already, but JT does neither, rather just continuing to steadily go to town on Tyson’s ass.

“Please, JT, please just--” Tyson pants, keening a bit when JT crooks his fingers _just right_, “please, just fuck me already!”

This seems to do the trick. JT pulls back, and Tyson is momentarily disappointed by the loss of sensation, but is immediately heartened by JT urging him to flip over and lie on his back.

“Come on babe,” he says, urging Tyson to spread his legs, “spread your legs for me so I can fuck you.”

Tyson does as he’s told, and leans up to give JT a kiss while he knee-walks forward and aligns his cock properly against Tyson’s hole.

“That’s it, I’ve got you babe,” JT says, leaning down to scent Tyson and press a few kisses to his neck as he pushes in. Tyson gasps--JT might fuck him regularly, but he’s got a pretty big cock--and clutches at JT’s shoulders.

“Tell me when you’re ready for me to move,” JT requests as soon as he is fully seated, and Tyson takes a moment to get adjusted before giving JT the go ahead.

“You can move,” he gasps out, and start moving JT does. The thrusts of his hips are to the same long, steady rhythm that JT was following while eating him out, and it feels _so fucking good_. “Please--JT, more, _please_,” he finds himself whining, a purr building in his chest that only breaks free when JT complies, his thrusts getting both harder and faster.

It doesn’t take long for Tyson to feel his orgasm building, and he tries to let JT know but can’t quite get the words out through his purrs and gasps. Instead, he just clutches harder at JT, and tilts his head up for kisses. JT complies with Tyson’s silent request, and presses their lips together. He continues to fuck Tyson like that, holding him close, kissing him, and letting out the occasional growl that makes Tyson shudder until Tyson comes, clenching down around him.

“Fuck, fuck, you feel so good,” JT stutters as Tyson continues to clench around him in the aftershocks of his orgasm, and Tyson can feel his knot expanding, catching on his rim on each thrust in and out.

“Please, knot me alpha,” Tyson gasps out, and he’s pretty sure that that’s what does it for JT, who thrusts in sharply, lets out the best sort of happy alpha growl, and comes, his knot expanding and locking itself into Tyson while he empties himself into the omega.

“That’s it,” Tyson purrs, and he strokes a hand up and down JT’s back as he comes down, and presses kisses to his neck, pausing to take a nice, deep inhale of JT’s scent.

“Mmmmh,” JT humms, and he flips them over and nudges Tyson into the position that they like while knotted face-to-face: Tyson mostly on top of JT with their chests pressed together, tilted just enough to the side that no one is being crushed. “Fuck, you smell so good,” JT mumbles, still come dumb, as he rubs his face all over Tyson’s jaw and neck, smearing his scent all over Tyson, marking him. Tyson smiles and lets out another purr. He and JT may not have actually talked about things like their feelings yet, or what they actually mean to each other, but it’s only a matter of time at this point, Tyson thinks.

JT presses another kiss to the faint mark he’s sucked into Tyson’s neck--it’s close to where a bonding bite would go, but not so close as to be too scandalous.

Maybe they aren’t ready for that conversation yet, but they will be. Tyson knows it.

* * *

Tyson’s out at the grocery store with Kerfy when an older woman gives the pair of them a dirty look over the apples, the type of look that makes Tyson want to shrink back into himself, or at the very least shrink behind Kerfy. He doesn’t, because that’s more instinct than anything else, and if Tyson was going to shrink back behind an alpha at any point in his life it would be behind JT, not Kerf, but that’s beside the point.

“What’s her problem?” Tyson mutters to Kerf, who shoots Tyson a strange look himself.

“I suspect that it probably has something to do with the fact that you absolutely reek of JT, and yet are clearly shopping for one household’s groceries with me.”

Tyson frowns. “That’s so not right on like, a number of levels.” Kerf shrugs, and pushes their cart over to the bell peppers, where he starts picking them up and inspecting them.

“Yeah, I mean, there’s obviously nothing wrong with us going shopping together and all, but she probably thought that you were mated to JT man. Like, this can’t be the first time something like this has happened.”

Tyson can feel his cheeks heat and shrugs, taking the cart himself and moving over to the tomatoes, and starts trying to see if he can find one that actually smells like a tomato. “I mean, it’s not the first time someone’s thought that,” he mumbles, and he can hear Kerf stifle a half-laugh behind him, “We aren’t though. He’s just my friend.”

“Uh huh,” Kerf goes, “I’ll believe that when you stop smelling like you’ve been bathing in each other’s scents all the time.”

“Fuck off,” Tyson mumbles, but he knows that Kerf means well. He and Marissa are definitely going to actually to get mated sooner than later, and he just wants all of them to be happy. Everything’s good though. Maybe he and JT aren’t actually boyfriends, let alone mates, but they’re both happy and everything’s fine. “It’s all fine Kerf. We’re not dating, but we’re happy that way, it’s all good. Let’s go get some taco shells.”

Kerf shoots him a skeptical look, but seems to let it go.

* * *

Waking up in the same bed as Tyson always gives JT a hell of a mix of emotions, but the first one is always a sleepy sort of contentedness. He’s spooned up behind Tyson, the pair of them are warm under the covers, and when JT tucks his face back into Tyson’s shoulder he smells like himself--one of the best smells in the world, if you ask JT--but he also smells like JT, which is just, like, the best.

Next always comes the hurt. Because the only thing that would be better to JT than getting to wake up in Tyson’s bed would be being able to wake up together in _their _bed. A bed that they would share because they were mates, a bed that they would share because Tyson loved him back, and because he let JT bite him and make them mates, and a bed they shared because they were a family, and because they were going to have kids one day, and grow old together and eventually get to be grandparents together that get to tell all their little grandkids about how they met when playing in the NHL and then got mated and had kids and lived happily ever after.

It hurts because JT knows that Tyson doesn’t feel that way, and that it will never actually happen. JT’s made his feelings for Tyson abundantly clear, and maybe all Tyson wants from him is to be friends that fuck, but JT’s weak, and he’s never going to say no to Tyson, not when what he wants is so close to what JT wants himself.

JT’s still holding Tyson when he wakes up, and smiles at him when he rolls over in his arms.

“Good morning,” he says, smiling, and he leans in to press a soft kiss to JT’s lips.

“Good morning,” he says back, his voice a little rough still from sleep. Mornings like this make JT’s heart hurt, but he’s not going to put a stop to them anytime soon.

* * *

“Wanna watch a movie after the game tonight?” JT looks up from lacing his skates to find Tyson standing there, a wide grin on his face. Between the grin and the circumstances, JT can read between the lines well enough to know what Tyson’s really asking, and his heart sinks to the pit of his stomach.

They’re in Columbus, getting dressed for morning skate before a game this evening. JT and Tyson had both listened to Kerf make plans with a couple of the other guys for after the game tonight, which means that what Tyson wants is to take advantage of Kerf being out of his and Tyson’s hotel room for them to fuck. Normally, JT would be all up on this offer. They wouldn’t be able to knot or anything, but could definitely get away with blowjobs or maybe even Tyson fucking JT if they had a bit more time. Tonight though…

“Umm--I can’t do tonight. Maybe we can watch something on the plane back to Denver tomorrow?” Maybe this will be enough to get JT out of this conversation, maybe it will keep Tyson from asking--

“Oh.” JT can hear the disappointment in his voice, despite the smile on his face, and feels like an ass for the conversation that he can tell is coming, “Do you have plans with Zach?”

“Yeah, we’re getting dinner.”

“Oh, have fun then! Get those secret NTDP bonding rituals out of the way!” He wanders off to go bother Kerf, and JT feels himself relax. It’s not like there’s actually anything wrong with his plans--he and Tyson aren’t dating, no matter how much he’d like them to be, and he doesn’t plan on sleeping with anyone other than Tyson in the near future--but the small stupid stereotypical alpha part of him that sees Tyson as _his omega _doesn’t always see things rationally.

Long story short, Tyson not pressing makes JT kinda feel like he dodged a bullet there.

A few hours later, JT finds himself wondering how he thought that it could have been that easy. This time, it’s EJ.

“You’re not coming out with us?” He asks as JT hurries thorough getting dressed, hoping to get out of there before most of the other guys so he can go and meet Zach without any questions.

“Can’t, I have plans with an old teammate.” EJ gives him a look.

“Plans or _plans _plans?” he asks, and JT doesn’t even bother to take a quick look around before replying. Tyson and Kerf are both still in the shower, and probably will be for a few more minutes.

“A little bit of both I think?” he says, “I mostly just wanted to see Zach, but he’s seeing a new girl, and she has a friend, and since he introduced me to someone that I dated for a while in college he seems to think that he’s some sort of matchmaker. He got reservations for the four of us at some place downtown.” JT tries to play it off, and tries to make just how disinterested he actually is in this girl come through in his voice. She’s probably really nice, and probably even someone that he’d like to be friends with, but if she really is looking for something he’s kinda emotionally unavailable at the moment. JT’s tried turning down Zach’s offers of double dates before, but by now he knows well enough to just humor him.

“Huh. Have fun then.” EJ says, voice flat, and JT has the sinking feeling in his gut that his disinterest didn’t come through as well as he hoped it did.

* * *

Tyson sits in his stall, trying very hard not to be noticed by JT as he walks by him to leave the locker room, ready to go off on his _date_. He feels a little bit like he wants to throw up.

It’s no wonder that he turned down Tyson’s offer that morning.

“Are you okay?” EJ asks, sitting down in the empty stall next to him, his voice quiet, and Tyson can tell that the older omega is just trying to help, but he really just wants to be left alone right now.

“Yeah, I--I think I’m just going to head to the bus early, okay?” he says, and EJ nods, an odd expression on his face.

“You do that kid. Alphas are dumbasses okay?”

EJ claps him on the shoulder, and Tyson forces himself to smile at the comment. As he starts to get up and EJ starts to head to the showers, Brutes pokes his head around the corner of his own stall and gives him a sympathetic smile.

“I know you didn’t plan on coming out tonight, but if you want to either come along or have an omegas only bitching fest, I bet EJ would be willing to change his plans and we can all hang,” he offers, and Tyson smiles again but shakes his head.

“Thanks for the offer guys, but I think I’d rather just be by myself tonight.”

The other Tyson nods, and makes a face that screams ‘I’ve been there before.’

“Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

That evening Tyson finds himself watching some shitty show on TV about people online dating people in federal jails, and isn’t sure if he’s grateful or disappointed when he hears a knock on the door and has an excuse to turn the TV off.

He opens the door, half expecting it to be EJ or Brutes again.

It’s JT instead.

“Can I come in?” JT asks, and Tyson realizes that he’s just been staring at him without moving or saying anything.

“Um, yeah, sure,” he says, and steps back to let JT in. It’s earlier than Tyson would have expected JT to be back; Tyson doesn’t even expect Kerf to be back for another hour.

JT sits down on Tyson’s bed, in the same spot that he always does when he and Tyson watch TV in one of their rooms on the road. Tyson sits down next to him, close enough to get a good whiff of his scent.

It’s the same as it always is. A wave a relief sweeps through Tyson. It’s clear that JT hadn’t slept with anyone tonight, and maybe JT might not see him as someone that he _takes out on dates _but at least he didn’t come to him after fucking some chick he’d never even met before tonight.

JT turns back on the TV, snorts at Tyson’s trashy late night choices, and changes it to the Food Network, which has old episodes of Good Eats on. He pulls Tyson in to lean on him like he always does, and Tyson honestly doesn’t know what to do here. He doesn’t say anything for a while, just watches Alton Brown and his grandmother explain how to make a good biscuit, only breaking his silence when JT leans in to press a kiss to his neck, a classic JT wanting to get it on move that normally Tyson’s all about.

“So I’m guessing your date didn’t go all that well then?” he asks, and oops, that’s not what he meant to say, but it does the job of getting JT to freeze and quickly scooch back and away from prime cuddling position.

“You found out?” he says, sounding sheepish, and Tyson snaps.

“I was in the room when you told EJ all about how Zach likes to set you up on dates,” he says, turning slightly and willing himself not to be visibly upset about this. Maybe JT kinda broke his heart tonight, but JT doesn’t need to know that. It’s not like JT ever took Tyson out on anything that wasn’t strictly a friend-date, oftentimes with Kerfy in tow.

“...oh,” JT says, seeming genuinely surprised by this realization, “I--it’s not like it was a _real_ real date Tyson, she was nice and all, but I’m not super into other alphas, and I was mostly doing it to humor Zach, because he and Dylan are off again and whenever he’s rebounding he seems to think that all his friends need to be dating someone too.”

Tyson deflates a little.

“You didn’t have to go,” he says, voice small, and JT blinks at him.

“I mean, it wasn’t a big deal, we all had a good time and it’s not like I’m dating anyone right now.”

If Tyson had thought earlier in the evening that he knew what getting his heart broken felt like, he was wrong, because _this _is what getting your heart broken felt like.

“Right,” he says, voice tense, trying not to get teary in front of JT, “You’re single, so going on a date with a friend of Zach’s isn’t a big deal. Got it.” He makes a show of pulling out his phone and checking the time.

“It’s late, and Kerf is going to be back sooner than later. I’m going to go hop in the shower.”

JT seems a little surprised by the quick change in conversation, but looks at the time on his phone as well, and Tyson wasn’t lying, it is late, so he just smiles at Tyson before getting up.

“I’ll see you in the morning buddy,” he says, and leans in close to Tyson when he makes it around to the other side of the bed, “If Kerf wasn’t going to be back soon, I’d offer to blow you for that amazing goal in the second, but I guess I’ll just have to save it for when we get back.”

With that, he leaves, and Tyson collapses back onto his bed, still determined not to let JT make him cry over this. He and JT aren’t dating. Maybe he thought that they were more than just friends that fucked, that they were heading somewhere with this, that they were going to make this thing between them official, but they’re not, and that’s going to be okay. _I'll give myself until we break for summer _he thinks, and that should be enough time. He’ll give himself until the end of the season to keep on doing this with JT, and he’ll let himself have his spring heat as some last hurrah for the relationship that wasn’t, and then he’ll get over JT, and they’ll be back to being just friends come next season. Nothing will go wrong.

* * *

_Did Mat tell you that Tito asked if he could bite him??? _Tyson’s sitting on the couch when he gets the text message from Dante, sprawled out with JT asleep and lying with his head on his chest. It’s cute, JT’s cute, Tyson’s leg is starting to go numb from the pressure of JT on it, but it’s worth it.

_He did not _😠 he replies, shooting a second text off a moment later, _So they're actually doing it then??? _All in all, Tyson’s not entirely surprised by this. Mat and Tito have been together for real since they both made the Islanders, and were kinda half dating, half hooking up on an on and off again basis since they were teenagers. It’s honestly about time they actually make it official.

_Yup. I talked to Mat earlier today, and they have tonight and tomorrow off and are going to like, actually do it. Told the team and their families and everything _...and Tyson’s happy for them, he really, really is. But there’s a small part of him, a part of him that is right here on this couch right now with JT snoring into his chest, that’s really fucking jealous. Tyson doesn’t know how much longer he and JT have together right now, they only had a few games left in the regular season, and who knows how long playoffs will last for them. Tyson had thought that he’d made it pretty clear earlier in the season what he wanted from whatever it was that he and JT had, but then JT went on that date in Columbus, and now Tyson is far too aware that their time together is limited.

Tyson’s pretty damn confident that they’re exclusive at the very least, but they also haven’t _talked_ about it, and also haven’t made any plans to see each other over the summer. Tyson had been hoping earlier in the year that he’d be able to bring JT up to the lake with the boys, introduce him to them properly and all, the way Mat had with Tito, but that certainly didn’t look like it was going to happen, let alone going on a trip or visiting their families together or even just training together.

JT makes a noise in his sleep and shifts a little, and snuffles against Tyson’s chest.

Tyson’s heart aches.

All he wants, more than anything--more than the cup even--is for JT to love him back. But JT’s made it pretty clear that all he wants is to be friends with Tyson, friends that fuck maybe, but still just friends, and Tyson doesn’t know how much longer that he can go on like this, with only half of what he really wants.

JT exhales, and Tyson leans down to press a kiss to the top of his head, and rubs the hand that isn’t holding his phone down his back. _That's great, I can't wait for the party this summer! _He texts back.

He knows how he’s going to spend his summer. It might not be how he pictured it happening in his mind, but he knows what it’s going to be. He’s going to go home when their post-season is done. He’s going to train. He’s going to spend time at the lake with the boys. He’s going to go the bonding party that Mat and Tito will have over the summer. He’s going to give Mat and Tito even more crap than usual for being sappy newlymates. He’s going to get over JT. He’s not going to stop talking to him or anything--Tyson honestly doesn’t know what he would do without JT in his life as a friend at the very least--but he’s not going to see him in person. He’s not going to call him in the middle of the night. He’s not going to have phone sex with him. He’s definitely not going to have actual sex with him.

_Next it'll be you and JT, huh? _The universe must be laughing at him right now.

Maybe next season he and JT won’t be mates, and they won’t be bros that bone anymore, but they’ll still be friends, and Tyson’s chest won’t hurt like this anymore, and it’ll all be good.

_Ha, ha, ha_🤷

* * *

Tyson might be planning on trying to get over JT this summer, but that doesn’t mean that he has to start _now_. Right now actually would be a terrible time for Tyson to start trying to get over JT, because they just fucking _beat the Flames_, and JT is giving Tyson the best sort of bedroom eyes from across the room.

They were getting ready to leave the arena for the airport, and both Tyson and JT were back in their suits, already showered and ready to get back on the road, just waiting for the rest of the guys. The team was understandably rowdy, even the guys who hadn’t been up for that long, and it wasn’t hard for Tyson to slip out of the room after JT slipped out himself. (It was slightly harder to avoid Brutes’ knowing glance.)

Tyson found JT waiting for him outside what appeared to be an empty trainer’s room, and followed him inside when JT opened the door for them.

“Holy shit, I wanna fuck you so bad,” JT whispers in his ear as he backs Tyson up against the door, turning the deadbolt and pressing a heated kiss to Tyson’s lips. The thought of it--of JT backing him up against the door and fucking him right there, of having to keep quiet so nobody heard, of JT holding him up while he knots him--is a tempting one, but Tyson shakes his head.

“Later--” he pants out, trying to keep his thoughts straight as JT presses a thigh between his legs, his aroused scent starting to cloud Tyson’s head, “--when we get home. I want you to knot me so bad JT, fuck--”

JT lets out a quiet growl at the mention of him knotting Tyson, and reaches down to undo Tyson’s belt and pop open his fly.

“Yeah,” he growls out, leaning in to kiss Tyson again, “I’mma suck you off, and then I’ll fuck you when we get home,” he says, and sinks down to his knees right there. Tyson has to bite his lip to keep himself from making some sort of noise that would give him away, and reaches down to thread a hand through JT’s hair when JT sucks the head of his cock into his mouth.

One thing that Tyson had quickly discovered when he and JT had started sleeping together was that JT fucking loved oral, and was, frankly, really fucking good at getting Tyson off with his mouth. It didn’t matter if it was sucking him off or eating him out, JT was by far the alpha most enthusiastic about going down that Tyson had ever slept with.

Right now, despite their need to be quick and quiet, was no exception to the rule of JT being really great at giving head. JT didn’t try to draw it out, despite his earlier comments they both knew that they were running on borrowed time here, so he pinned Tyson’s hips to the door and went to town. He alternated between focusing on the head of Tyson’s dick while jacking him off, keeping eye contact with Tyson in a way that made Tyson’s knees go weak, and swallowing him all the way down.

It didn’t take long for Tyson to start gasping, his orgasm quickly approaching. “JT--fuck, please, I’mma, I’m gonna come, fuck--” Tyson cuts himself off by shoving his own hand over his mouth to muffle the noises that he can’t quite manage to hold back while JT pulls back to suck just at the tip again until Tyson comes, spilling into JT’s open mouth.

JT clambers back up onto his feet, and crowds Tyson even further up against the door that he’s using to support, like, most of his body weight now that his legs have gone all wobbly. He leans in to kiss Tyson, and maybe it took Tyson a while to get used to making out with JT when JT still mostly tasted like Tyson’s slick or come, but they’ve been sleeping together for a while now, and if there’s one thing that JT is more enthusiastic about than giving head it’s kissing, so Tyson doesn’t even really mind anymore.

“Do you--” he pulls back and starts to ask, reaching his hand down to cup JT where he’s hard in his suit pants, but JT shakes his head.

“Not now,” he says, and leans in to press another kiss to Tyson’s lips, “we don’t really have time, and I would really like to fuck you later if you’re still up for it.”

Tyson smiles at him, and presses one last, quick kiss to his lips before pushing him back a little so he can tuck himself back into his pants and make it not look like he just got sucked off in a trainer’s room.

“I’m definitely still going to be up for it.”

JT smiles at him, having already dusted off his knees and adjusted himself. His lips were a little swollen, but Tyson figured that there wasn’t much that they could do about that.

* * *

Later that night, JT finds himself taking some pride in the way that Tyson doesn’t even try to muffle his noises as JT pounds him into the mattress. (He ignores the fact that the largest reason that Tyson isn’t trying to be quiet it because Kerf went straight to Marissa’s from the airport.) JT leans in and presses a kiss to the back of Tyson’s neck, plasters himself to his back, reaches around to wrap his own hand around Tyson’s cock, and buries his face in Tyson’s throat.

And shit.

Tyson smells _amazing_. Like, Tyson always smells good? He is hands down the best smelling person that JT has ever met, and that’s saying something, but right now? Tyson smells like himself only better--a richer, slightly sweeter scent that makes JT feel like he just needs to hide him away and keep him safe. Breathing him in, JT can feel himself come even closer to popping his knot, and starts to jerk Tyson off a little faster, keeping time with his hips.

“Fuck--I’m going to knot soon,” he says in Tyson’s ear, and Tyson shudders and whines, and clenches down tighter around JT’s dick.

“Yeah, please,” he pants out, and JT only has to thrust a few more times before he’s coming, his knot locking itself in Tyson. It takes him a moment to come back to himself enough to realize that Tyson hasn’t come yet, that the other man is alternating between grinding down on JT’s knot, which should be pressing onto his prostate by now, and thrusting up into his hand, which is still loosely wrapped around his cock. JT squeezes his hand tighter, and actively starts to jack Tyson off, allowing Tyson to focus just on grinding back onto his knot.

“That’s it baby,” JT whispers to him, and when Tyson comes he has to keep himself from leaning down to bite his neck, pressing a kiss to the skin instead.

As they settle into their post-orgasmic haze--still knotted together, both of them starting to doze off--JT breathes Tyson’s scent in once more, and yep. It does smell even nicer than usual.

He has no clue what that means, but it’s not a smell that he’s going to be upset about.

* * *

“So, what are your summer training schedules looking like?” Kerf asks over breakfast the morning before he heads out of town. Quietly, Tyson isn’t surprised that Kerf is the first of the three of them to head off. He knows that he and Marissa want to go on a vacation just the two of them, and then go and see both of their families before Kerf has to get back into hardcore training mode. Tyson is fully expecting Kerf to announce to him and JT over the summer that they should give his room to one of the new guys because he’s going to officially move in with Marissa.

Tyson’s still chewing his bite of pancake when JT pipes up.

“I have a flight booked to go back to Chicago in like, a week and a half. I’m going to Hawaii with the fam at the beginning of July, and Jesse and I want to get into the training groove before we head out so it’s easier to get back into it when we get back.”

Tyson feels like there’s a weight sitting in his stomach. He knows that he and JT didn’t have any plans to do anything together this summer, but the way that JT already has his summer planned out like that--training and everything--with Tyson being thoroughly excluded from all of it...

Well.

It kinda makes him feel like shit. And also like he’s really fucking stupid for part of him still thinking that JT was going to come around and that they were going to, what? Make it official? Settle down and get bonded? Throw out Tyson’s birth control and make a family? Act as if JT hadn’t made it abundantly clear that they weren’t dating?

“What about you Tyson?” Kerf asks, and Tyson snaps himself out of it. It takes him a minute to regain his bearings, but when he does he plasters on a grin.

“You know, the usual. My heat should be soon, and then after that I’ll head home, and probably go to the lake with Dante and Mat once or twice. Nothing special.”

He knows that his smile is off, and he suspects that his scent is doing something strange, but if there’s one thing that Tyson’s good at it’s ignoring things that are right in front of his face, and right now that’s including the confused look Kerf is shooting him and the strange expression that he can’t even identify that’s on JT’s face.

* * *

“Hey,” JT’s voice catches Tyson off guard as he walks past the living room on his way up to his own bedroom. Tyson had just gotten back from dropping Kerf and Marissa off at the airport, and he honestly hadn’t realized that JT was even in the house.

“Oh, hey,” he says in return, and feels butterflies in his stomach when JT strides over and grabs his hand, brushing a thumb across his knuckles. He has to take a moment to try and squash those butterflies, because _JT doesn't like him like that, _a fact that he knows for sure after this morning’s breakfast conversation about summer plans that clearly did not involve him.

“You mentioned this morning that your heat is coming up--” and Tyson needs to tell himself again not to get his hopes up, because this doesn’t mean anything, “--and if it’s supposed to be before I leave and if you want me to, I can help you through it.”

Tyson bites his lip. On one hand, yes, he wants JT to help him through his heat, but is it really the best idea? What’ll happen if Tyson’s still in heat when it’s time for JT to go home? Will JT actually postpone his flight home? Or will he just leave Tyson to ride out the rest of it by himself?

Apparently it takes him a bit too long to respond, and JT’s smile falters.

“I mean--if you already have someone to help you take care of it, I can just leave--”

“--No!” Tyson yelps, cutting him off while his heart feels a little like it’s breaking. Because, what the actual fuck? Did JT really think that Tyson was already going to have someone else lined up to help him through his heat? Like, Tyson knew for a fact at this point that he and JT wanted different things from this whatever it was between them, but that was a bit of a low blow.

“...So do you want me to stay?” JT asks, hesitant, and before Tyson can reply, he quickly tacks on “or I can leave early if you’d rather I do that. It’s up to you, really.”

Tyson bites his lip, and thinks _fuck it_. He needs to get over JT, and if that means that the last time they’re going to sleep together is during Tyson’s heat? Well, their arrangement is just going to go out with a bang then.

“If you could stay, that would be great,” Tyson says, voice low, and JT smiles at him and leans in to press a kiss to his lips.

“Sounds like a plan.”

* * *

After about a week, it becomes obvious that Tyson’s heat is running super late, and Tyson can tell that JT’s starting to get worried.

“Are you sure you feel alright?” he asks for the third time that morning, and Tyson has to try really hard to keep himself from saying something too snippy in response. JT being worried isn’t exactly a bad thing, and it’s not like he isn’t concerned himself at this point.

“I told you, I feel fine,” he says, but JT’s still frowning, and Tyson rolls his eyes, “I’ve been weirdly tired, but not anything that’s super weird. My body probably just isn’t used to me playing so late in the season. You know that being a pro athlete effects shit like that.”

“I know,” JT grumbles, and settles down next to Tyson on the couch, gently nudging Tyson until he’s positioned the way the JT wants him to be, leaning against his chest, “It’s just that I have to leave in a couple of days, and I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Something warm grows in Tyson’s chest, and he has to ignore the feeling. JT not wanting to leave him alone for his heat doesn’t mean anything. Alphas get weird and territorial about omegas that they’re close to during their heats. Even Kerfy got a little growly when alphas that weren’t him and JT tried to come over to their house around Tyson’s winter heat. JT’s just worried in the way that an alpha friend would be, and probably disappointed in the way a fuck buddy missing out on a heat would be. It doesn’t mean anything.

“If you have to leave before my heat starts I’ll be fine,” he says, and it feels a bit like lying. “I’ll lock myself in, and have a cooler of snacks and water and gatorade by my nightstand. I’ll break out my box of dildos, and maybe steal one of your shirts and it’ll be fine. It won’t be my first rodeo.”

“I still don’t like it,” he grumbles, and Tyson doesn’t know what to say to that, because it’s not like he likes it either.

* * *

His heat doesn’t start before JT has to get on his flight back home for the summer. At this point, Tyson isn’t super surprised.

(He also isn’t super surprised to find that JT had switched out all of his pillowcases for ones from his own bed, or that he had left him an old UMich hoodie in addition to the t-shirt Tyson had requested. Alphas can be possessive like that.)

* * *

JT’s been home for a week and has checked his phone six or seven times in the last 15 minutes waiting for Tyson to reply to his message when Jesse calls him out for acting weird.

“What’s with you?” she asks when he checks his phone again after they sit down with their post-workout smoothies. JT averts his eyes, trying not to meet her gaze. He knows that he’s being ridiculous. Tyson will either tell JT when his heat hits or he won’t. Either way, it really isn’t any of JT’s business since he isn’t actually there to ride it out with him. He really shouldn’t care as much as he does, but here he is.

JT knows Jesse well enough to know she won’t drop it though, so he might as well fess up.

“It’s stupid,” he mumbles, and she laughs at him.

“Isn’t it always stupid with you?”

“Shut up,” he mumbles, shoving at her a little. She shoves him back, and he sighs before continuing, “Tyson’s heat is late, and he keeps saying that he’s not worried, but _I'm _worried, and I know that I’m not actually his alpha or anything, but the fact that I’m not there, and that I can’t take care of him, especially if something _is_ wrong is really bothering me.”

He can’t bring himself to make eye contact with his sister, knowing that the other alpha is going to be judging him hardcore.

“You do realize that a lot of this would have been solved by just talking to him about your feelings earlier in the year, right?” she asks, and JT nods, sullen. Unfortunately, Jesse and Morgan had both been on the receiving end of a lot of his whining about his unrequited feelings for Tyson, and he’s been getting shit from both of them ever since he’s gotten home.

“I know,” he mumbles, “but I didn’t want--”

He looks down when his phone buzzes, and cuts himself off when he realizes that it’s a message from Tyson.

_Heat finally hit. Don't expect to hear from me for a few days_

JT swallows, and tilts his head back so he doesn’t have to look at either the phone or his sister, because he really doesn’t want to know what his face is doing right now. On one hand, Tyson’s heat finally hit, which means that there isn’t anything wrong, and JT doesn’t need to be freaked out because he isn’t there to take care of Tyson if Tyson is sick or hurt or something. On the other hand, Tyson’s heat hit, and JT _isn't there_.

JT isn’t there to take care of Tyson. JT isn’t there to ride out Tyson’s heat with him. JT isn’t there because Tyson didn’t ask him to stay, and now he isn’t able to keep alphas that Tyson doesn’t want away from him when he’s vulnerable, and Tyson might be holed up with some _other _alpha right now, and JT doesn’t even realize that he’s started to quietly growl until Jesse elbows him in the ribs and leans over to read the text message on JT’s phone.

“Cut it out,” she scowls at him, and JT feels heat rise to his face. Jesse’s right, and he needs to cut it out before he makes a scene. Tyson didn’t say that he was spending the heat with someone else, just that it was happening and that he wouldn’t be in contact for a few days.

It isn’t anything that he needs to worry about.

“It’s none of your business what he’s doing right now, and face it JT, it’s unlikely that another alpha is going to be super keen on shacking up with him in a room that probably smells like the two of you.”

“You’re right,” JT grumbles, and Jesse smirks at him. A little knot unravels a little in his chest at the thought that she’s right about Tyson’s room smelling like the two of them. He takes a few more deep breaths, another sip of his smoothie, and types out a reply to Tyson’s message.

_It's about time_. _Use the hoodie, call me if you need me or when it's over._

* * *

The night before Tyson is supposed to leave Denver himself, he finds himself curled up in bed wearing JT’s hoodie, his laptop in his lap, and his heat still nowhere to be seen. JT had been gone for over a week at this point, and yesterday Tyson broke down, and when JT sent his daily worried text about Tyson’s impending heat, he lied and said that it seemed to finally be actually starting, and not to expect anything from him for the next few days.

It was a blatant lie, and Tyson doesn’t exactly like not being able to text JT, but at this point he needed to just put the guy’s mind at ease. Tyson’s own mind however, was very much _not _at ease, which is what prompted this bout of panicked googling.

_Reasons to miss a heat _he types in, and the first link he clicks on has a whole list of reasons that you may miss a heat, but one reason--the most obvious one really, now that he’s thinking about it--leaps out at him.

_Pregnancy_.

And, no.

He, he can’t be pregnant, can he? Tyson thinks back, and like, he’s on birth control and all, but he and JT also tend not to use condoms when they’re fucking, because condoms and knots really don’t mix well, so like, maybe that’s it? Like, probably not, because birth control is pretty good at doing what it does, but maybe?

He should probably take a test at least, and once he rules that out as a reason he should probably go and see a doctor.

It’s late, but there’s a 24 hour drug store just down the street, so Tyson climbs out of bed, slips into his slides, and sticks his wallet and phone in the kangaroo pocket of JT’s hoodie before slipping into the car and leaving for the store.

“It’s all going to be good,” he mumbles to himself as he parks in the empty parking lot, “You’ll take the test, it’ll be negative, and then the doctor will just tell you to like, change your diet. It’ll all be fine.”

Actually having to pick out and purchase a test is a bit of an adventure, because Tyson honestly doesn’t know if any of them are going to be more accurate than others, and also he really doesn’t want someone to recognize him when he’s getting it. In the end, he decides to go with one of the name brand tests that advertises itself as “easy to read!” and “99% accurate!”

He also considers himself lucky that the cashier definitely does not give two shits about who he is or what he does, based off of the fact that the guy barely looks at him and barely speaks to him through the entire transaction.

Small miracles and all that.

By the time Tyson gets back home, he’s a bit of a nervous wreck. He goes straight to the bathroom, where he has the fun task of actually taking the two tests in the box, and then has the even funner task of waiting three minutes for the results to come up.

While sitting there in the bathroom, the timer on his phone counting down and the house quiet around him, it strikes Tyson just how much he never expected to be in this position. He had always figured that he wouldn’t have a pregnancy scare, and that if he did, he’d have JT--or at the very least Kerfy or Dante or Mat--there to hold his hand while he waited for the results of the test to come back.

Instead, he’s alone in a very quiet house, taking a pregnancy test in the middle of the night without even a person on the other end of a phone to keep him company. He probably could have called one of the guys, but he knows Alexander, Dante, and Mat all well enough to know that they’d ask why he wasn’t on the phone with JT, and he doesn’t think that he wants to go there right now.

If this test isn’t positive, JT doesn’t ever need to know, and Tyson’s still going to try and get over him this summer so they can go back to having a normal friendship this season, and so that Kerf will stop shooting them disappointed looks whenever he finds them making out. If the test _is_ positive, JT _will _have to find out, and Tyson will either end up mated to JT because JT’s a good guy and wouldn’t want to leave him alone, and Tyson will slowly die of heartbreak because he’s mated to a guy who doesn’t love him back; _OR, _JT will have to find out, and Tyson will have to listen as JT tells him about how he doesn’t actually want to mate with Tyson, and then Tyson will have to move out and Kerf will give him sad eyes and Tyson will still die of heartbreak but at least it would be quick.

The timer goes off on his phone.

Here goes nothing.

* * *

Tyson manages to hold it together until he gets into the car with his mom when she picks him up from the airport. She seems a bit taken aback by the fact that he just bursts into tears, but takes it in stride the way that moms always seem to be able to do.

“What’s wrong baby?” she asks, and Tyson just finds himself crying harder, “Oh honey,” she murmurs, and turns off the car before walking around and opening up his door to pull him into a hug in the middle of the airport parking lot.

He takes a few deep breaths like that, just hugging his mom, breathing in the steady beta scent that colors the memories of his childhood, and calms down enough to get some words out.

“I’m pregnant,” he chokes out, and he knows that his mom hears him when she squeezes him even tighter.

“What else?” she asks, and Tyson might not want to go there, but he guesses that it’s better to get it all out there at once.

“It’s JT’s, and he doesn’t want to be my mate,” he blurts out all at once, and she squeezes him tighter once more.

“Oh baby,” she murmurs, and runs a hand through his hair, “you don’t know that for sure, do you? Because I don’t believe for a second that that boy doesn’t want to be your mate.”

“He doesn’t though,” Tyson whispers, and he can tell that his mom doesn’t quite believe him, but also that she’s decided to drop the topic for now. It’s all fine by him--he’s calmed down enough to no longer be crying, even if his breathing is still ragged--he doesn’t exactly want to rehash all of his not-a-relationship drama from the season right now, even if he knows that his mom is one of the few people in the world that will never tell him that he can’t do this without a mate.

“When did you find out?” she asks, and before he can even open his mouth to reply she continues, “Have you even been to see a doctor yet? Do you know how far along you are?”

“I took the test last night,” he says, “I don’t know how far along I am, but I missed my heat, which is why I took it,” he says, and she hums.

“Well, let’s get out of this parking lot, and you can call the OB-GYN from the car, and we’ll stop by the store to get ice cream on the way back.”

God. Tyson doesn’t know what he’d do without his mom.

“Okay,” he says, and he doesn’t even question it when she hands him her phone in the car before they start driving, the contact for the doctor’s office already pulled up.

Here goes nothing.

* * *

The following Tuesday, Tyson finds himself sitting in a car in the parking lot of the OB-GYN’s office, clutching a copy of an ultrasound in his hand, and trying his hardest not to be that person crying in their car in a parking lot.

He’s pregnant. And yeah, he might have known that he was pregnant for a few days now, but this is the first time that he’s held physical, visual, doctor-authenticated proof that he’s pregnant with his and JT’s baby right now.

And that’s where the tears come in.

Because fuck. This was supposed to be the summer that he was going to spend getting over JT. The summer where he was going to face the fact that the most he would ever be to JT was a good friend and a consistant fuck-buddy, someone who he found attractive and was friends with and liked spending time with, and someone that he would never, ever actually _love_.

And now Tyson was fucking pregnant with their kid.

He finds himself dialing JT’s phone number before he can even think about it. He holds his breath as it rings, and rings, and rings some more, and eventually goes to voicemail, which Tyson hangs up on before it can actually start recording.

Tyson honestly isn’t sure if he’s upset or glad that JT didn’t pick up, but is pretty sure that the way that his heart is racing probably isn’t very good for the baby.

The baby. The baby that he’s going to have to tell JT about, because it’s also JT’s baby, and that he’s going to have to tell all their friends about, and all their teammates, and management, and probably the rest of the world too, and _shit _this is too much for him to handle right now.

After taking a few deep breaths and noting that JT hasn’t called him back, he wipes his eyes with a napkin, places the ultrasound in the passenger seat, and starts the car, hooking his phone up to the bluetooth.

In order to avoid being both the person who cries in their car in a parking lot and also the person who cries in their car while driving because they’re alone with their thoughts, he tells Siri to call Mat.

After a few rings, Mat picks up.

“Hey man!”

Tyson plasters a smile onto his face, shoves all thoughts of JT and the baby to the back of his mind, and starts to drive.

“Hey Mat! How’s mated life treating you?”

* * *

The thing is, Tyson thinks, as he sits in the living room with his mom, sister, and grandparents, eating popcorn and trying not to lose too terribly at Catan, is that he knows that he can do this without JT if he has to. He doesn’t have to be mated to have a kid. He doesn’t have to be mated to raise a happy, well-adjusted child. He and Kacey are living proof of that. His mom did it, and so can he.

He just doesn’t want to.

Which means that he should get off his ass and just _talk _to JT.

Later, after the game has been packed away and Tyson’s listened to Kacey gloat about how she’s going to have to teach her future niece or nephew how to play when they’re old enough, “Because it’s not like you can show them how to win Tys,” his mom corners him in the kitchen.

“You need to talk to that boy.”

Tyson nods, avoiding his mother’s gaze as he loads the bowls from game night into the dishwasher.

“I will Mom, just not tonight.”

* * *

Like he said to his mother, Tyson doesn’t talk to JT that night. Unfortunately, he also doesn’t talk to him the next night.

Or the next night.

Or the next.

* * *

It’s been over three weeks of procrastinating on telling JT when Tyson finally comes up with a plan, typing it out on his phone and everything. It reads like this:

Step 1: Get both JT and Kerfy on a skype call at the same time.  
Step 2: Tell them that he thinks that he needs to move out this season, and that the two of them should just live in the house themselves or they should give his room to one of the new guys next year.  
Step 3: Give them some totally valid (not baby-related) reasons as to why he should move out that he hasn’t actually come up with yet.  
Step 4: Mention at the very last moment that also, btw, he’s pregnant and isn’t going to be playing this season.  
Step 5: Leave the skype call for a very urgent reason that means that he cannot take questions or comments at this time.  
Step 6: Hopefully be able to avoid actually having a real conversation with JT about who the other father is and how Tyson’s going to end up being a single dad.

Tyson is fully aware of the fact that this is by no means a Good Plan. In fact, he is even aware of the fact that this is a Bad Plan, especially the part where he plans on telling both the baby daddy and another one of their friends that he’s pregnant at the same time. Unfortunately, his friends that he normally turns to when he needs to make an actual Good Plan are Kerf and Dante, and since he hasn’t actually told either of them that he’s pregnant yet, he can’t exactly get their help with this whole thing.

But, a Bad Plan is better than no plan, he supposes, and he starts putting out feelers to find a good time for the three of them to skype.

* * *

Unfortunately for Tyson, it’s not just well laid plans that often go awry. The first thing that messes with the plan is that he can’t actually find a time that all three of them can get on skype until he’s up at the lake with Dante and Mat (and Tito), which isn’t the worst thing that could happen, but is also by no means ideal.

So, Tyson is already up at the lake with the guys by the time the plan has the chance to go even more off the rails.

Most of the time, Tyson absolutely loves the time he gets to spend at the lake with the guys. For the first couple of days a rotating cast of his, Dante, and Mat’s mutual friends are there, and then they spend the last couple of days with just the three of them. It’s a good system, and has been an important factor in their friendships remaining as close as they have, especially since he and Mat made the NHL.

The first thing that wasn’t ideal about the trip was how most of the time he spent a significant portion of the trip very not-sober, which clearly wasn’t an option right now. Luckily, he was able to play that off by putting his prenatal vitamins in an old prescription bottle, and saying that he was on some new medication that doesn’t interact well with alcohol, and the guys dropped it and kept passing him the sodas they kept for mixers instead of beers.

The second thing that wasn’t ideal about the trip was that now that Tyson was out of his first trimester, his scent was starting to change enough to be noticeable to most people, and was starting to change in a way that specifically made him smell _pregnant_. If he was careful, it was easy enough to hide with scent neutralizing body washes and sprays, but they were at the lake, and that shit washes off.

Tyson is made very aware of that fact when he’s cornered by a suspicious looking Mat after going inside early in order to get first dibs on one of the showers.

“What are you doing?” Tyson asks when Mat pushes past him into the bathroom when Tyson opens the door to leave, surprised when Mat grabs his wrist to prevent him from actually exiting the room himself.

“Tito said that you smelled different than normal when you got out of the lake earlier, and I’m pretty sure that you used a scent blocking wash in the shower because now you don’t smell like anything,” Tyson can’t help it, but he stiffens up slightly, and based off of the way Mat’s eyebrows crinkle, he definitely noticed, “And now you’re acting strange since I brought it up. What gives?” he asks, and Tyson doesn’t even know what to say. His not at all comprehensive plan most certainly did not cover this. Before he even has the chance to say something, Mat steamrollers on. “Did you and JT get yourselves mated or something?” he asks, clearly trying to lighten the mood slightly based on the teasing tone of his voice, and Tyson just can’t.

“Fuck,” he mutters, under his breath, and feels himself start to cry again, and for fuck’s sake, he does not like this side effect of pregnancy.

“Whoa, whoa, it was just a joke,” he says, and pulls Tyson into a hug. Tyson isn’t entirely sure why he keeps finding himself in this position, but here he is, crying into yet another hug.

“Are you sure you’re okay? If you did get mated and Compher isn’t sticking around I’ll go get Dante and we’ll fly out to wherever the hell he is and teach him a lesson,” he says, clearly trying to make the sentence sound like a joke when Tyson knows for a fact that he’s being completely serious right now. Unfortunately though, instead of making some witty comeback, Tyson finds himself crying even harder at the mention of JT.

“Oh fuck, I didn’t think that that’s what actually happened,” Mat mutters, and Tyson can’t even bring himself to correct him, just feels Mat moving around a little, and a minute later Dante comes bursting into the room.

“That asshole,” Dante swears, and squeezes into the already slightly too full bathroom to join the hug, his clean scent a nice contrast to Mat’s which Tyson isn’t completely used to again since he and Tito got mated.

“He didn’t--” Tyson manages to get out, but is cut off by Dante.

“Didn’t what, lead you on, bite you, and then leave you alone this summer? Because that’s sure as hell what it sounds like Tyson.” he asks, and Tyson shakes his head, taking in a few deep breaths and stepping back until he can seat himself on the--thankfully closed--lid of the toilet.

“He--he didn’t,” he gets out, and swallows before continuing, avoiding Dante and Mat’s eyes, “he didn’t bite me.”

A moment of silence.

“Then what the fuck happened?”

“He made it super fucking clear that he didn’t want to be my mate after a year of me thinking that we were on the same page, and then I found out that I’m pregnant, and it’s his, and I haven’t told him yet, and I honestly don’t know what to do.”

It’s silent for a few long moments, before Mat steps forward and pulls him into a half-hug, Tyson’s forehead pressing into his stomach.

“Dante and I can still get on a plane and teach him a lesson if you want,” he offers, and Tyson shakes his head.

“I didn’t actually think that he’d do something like that,” Dante says from behind him, and Tyson feels his eyes prickle with the threat of tears again.

“Neither did I,” Tyson whispers. And that’s the truth of it, isn’t it? This whole thing wouldn’t have been even a fraction as bad as it has been if either JT hadn’t let Tyson think that they were going to leave the last season mated, or if he had just bitten him. The fact that he and Tyson are going to be having a kid together would be a lot less daunting if had always been clear that they were just going to be friends and they could have just done a co-parenting with no feelings thing, or if they had been mated already and the kid could have just been a happy accident. Now Tyson doesn’t know how JT, who has barely texted--let alone called--him since Tyson told him that his heat hit, is even going to react to having a kid, and Tyson’s preparing himself to be a single dad.

The whole thing really is kinda fucked isn’t it?

* * *

“You’re going to be a dad,” Dante says to him that night, as they lay together in a hammock they have set up out back.

Tyson smiles, and puts a hand to his stomach. Even if the whole thing with JT isn’t great right now, at least he’s going to get a kid out of it.

“Yeah,” he says, “I am.”

* * *

Unfortunately, the drama doesn’t end there on the trip to the lake.

Tyson was laying down on the bed he’d been using for the trip, having come back out from the boat early, the sun having started to get to him faster than usual, when his phone started to ring.

It’s Kerf.

“Hey man,” Tyson answers, a smile on his voice. He and Kerfy hadn’t talked a ton over the phone this summer, but Tyson was never one to say no to talking with his bros. “How’s your summer been? Are you and Marissa still in--” Kerfy cuts him off.

“I got traded.”

“...you, got traded?” Tyson finds himself repeating the question, his brain thought process having come to a screeching halt.

“Yeah,” Kerf says, his voice sounding like maybe he hadn’t quite processed it himself yet. “Yeah. Me and Brutes. To the Leafs.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. I just. I just wanted to let you know before it got out to the press. I just got off the phone with JT.”

“Yeah,” Tyson finds himself repeating, and neither of them say anything for a long moment.

“I--I’ve gotta go Tyson. I need to call--”

“--Of course. Thanks for calling to tell me Alexander.”

“Always. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Kerfy says, and even though he can’t see him, Tyson forces himself to smile.

“Later.”

Kerfy hangs up, presumably to call more people before the news breaks.

And well. The thought doesn’t come to him right then, but later that afternoon, when he’s making sandwiches for lunch with Dante, he realizes that this completely derails his plan on how to tell JT about the baby.

* * *

Later, when JT makes his tweet about needing a new roomie, Tyson almost tells him.

He calls JT, and has the conversation all planned out in his head. JT will pick up, and Tyson will mention having read his tweet, and tell him that “he’s in luck, because they’re going to have a new roommate in just under seven months!”

It doesn’t go like that though, because JT doesn’t pick up, and Tyson chickens out and just sends him frowny face emojis and “put it back” memes instead.

* * *

JT didn’t mean to avoid Tyson all summer, but in the end, it just kinda happened. At first, it started out as a combination of self-preservation and Jesse threatening to lock him in a basement somewhere never to see the light of day again if he made another worried comment about Tyson’s heat. And she was right, since he wasn’t Tyson’s alpha and since he wasn’t the alpha that Tyson was spending his heat with (_please let there be no one else _he had found himself thinking, as if he had a right to), he really had no place to worry about Tyson’s heat now that he had actually had it and it was clear that there wasn’t something _wrong_.

He made himself stop checking his phone every five minutes, and maybe part of him still guiltily hoped that Tyson would end up calling him, asking him to come home or at the very least talk him through it, but he never did, and that was...okay. Fine.

After that though, JT started running out of valid excuses. Tyson never called or texted to let him know that his heat had broken, and that was fine. JT didn’t let himself ask how it all worked out because it wasn’t his place to, because he wasn’t Tyson’s boyfriend, let alone his mate. He didn’t ignore Tyson, but he tried to stop facetiming as much as he wanted to, tried to cut down their actual phone calls, stick more to texting.

He needed to put limits on this, at least for the summer. He needed to pump the breaks a little so he could go back to living in a house with Tyson and maybe stop _wanting _him so bad. Maybe if he put a little distance between them he wouldn’t want to bite him as badly as he did. Maybe if he spent a little less time looking at his face and hearing his voice he could let himself let go of this idea that Tyson was somehow his, when clearly, he wasn’t.

When Kerfy gets traded, JT lets Tyson’s phone call go to voicemail, because one of his best friends getting traded is already bad enough. He made the insta post about needing a new roomie earlier not because he wanted to fill the room, fill _Kerf's _room, but because of how much he didn’t want to. Because of how much he just wants to let the room become a guest room, how much he wants it to be just him and Tyson living together, for it to be _their _home, for it to be the home that he shares with _his omega_\--he doesn’t need to feed the fantasy.

By the end of the summer, he and Tyson have stopped facetiming, and rarely actually call each other. They still text, because he’s always going to at least text Tyson, but they haven’t even discussed when they’re both coming back to Denver yet, let alone what to do with Kerf’s room.

* * *

In the end, Tyson’s pretty happy with his decision to come back to Denver in early August. His flight gets into DIA a little after noon on a Saturday, and he makes his way out of the airport and into his uber in record time, not wanting to give anyone in the airport the chance to recognize him and see his baby bump, let alone get a whiff of his pregnant-omega scent.

It probably wouldn’t be good form to let the Denver media find out that he’s pregnant before he lets the team, let alone JT, know.

He doesn’t exactly love being in his and JT’s house alone, especially since Kerfy has already moved out all of his stuff, but being in Denver means that he can start having regular appointments with his Denver OB-GYN before he’s too far along, and means that it’s easier to have talks with the team’s PR department. He’ll need to talk to JT before he really spends any time with his teammates that are still in town, and before he starts getting a nursery set up, but he’ll finally bite the bullet and call him tomorrow. He will.

* * *

(He doesn’t.)

* * *

It’s Monday evening, and Tyson is standing shirtless in the kitchen.

It’s Monday evening, and Tyson is standing shirtless in the kitchen, and maybe JT doesn’t know much about pregnancy, but Tyson is standing shirtless in the kitchen and is definitely pregnant. Tyson hasn’t noticed him yet, and JT is inordinately grateful, because he honestly doesn’t know what his face is doing, but it probably isn’t good. It’s Monday evening, and Tyson is dancing in the kitchen while he’s getting his dinner together, and he has what can only be a baby bump, and when he inhales all JT can smell is Tyson and happy, _pregnant_, omega.

And, wow. JT thought that he knew what heartbreak felt like, what with the whole not talking to Tyson all summer thing. He thought that it was slow, and achy, and all he wanted to do was fly to Tyson and find out what he could do to make things good between them again. But _oh_. This is what it feels like to have his heart torn out of his chest and stomped on. Tyson’s pregnant. And happy. And the baby clearly isn’t his.

He must let some sort of noise escape, because all of a sudden Tyson freezes, and spins around to face JT. He’s pale, and opens his mouth to speak, and JT unconsiously finds himself cutting him off.

“So I guess this is why you stopped facetiming me then,” he says, and he can feel his eyes stinging and the wobble in his own voice, and _fuck _this, and _fuck _the whole stoic alpha shtick he has going on most of the time. JT notices Tyson open his mouth to reply, and he just _can't _deal with this right now. He doesn’t want to hear about how apparently Tyson had been sleeping with other alphas last season, and how apparently he doesn’t need JT, and how apparently he doesn’t even need to tell JT that he’s pregnant which means that the baby _isn't JT's_, and--and he just needs to get out of here.

He drops his bag on the floor, and spins around to leave. Vaguely, he can hear Tyson calling his name, and Tyson doesn’t smell happy anymore, but JT can’t right now. He needs--he pauses when he’s halfway down the street. He needs to go somewhere, or do something, and he needs to not just get himself lost in Denver.

He eventually finds himself in a bar. Somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice is telling him that this is not the best way to handle this, but JT has elected to ignore that voice for the time being. That’s the same voice that used to tell him that if he didn’t just talk to Tyson and get their relationship figured out that he’s eventually going to find someone else, and JT doesn’t like that voice very much right now.

He’s not quite sure what drink he’s on when the bartender, concern written on her face, puts a glass of water in front of him and stands there long enough for JT to look up at her.

She’s an alpha, and tall, and her voice is nice when she talks to him. “Do you have anyone you can call?” she asks, and JT doesn’t know if any of the other guys are back yet, but he can call Kerfy. Kerfy always knows what to do. They might not be teammates anymore, which makes JT sad, but Kerfy went to Harvard, and knows how to deal with a lot of stuff.

“How about you give him a call then?” she chides, and JT didn’t realize he said that all out loud, but he thinks that he should listen to her.

He gets out his phone, and hits Kerfy’s contact in his list of favorites.

* * *

Tyson barely remembers to actually turn off the stove so his pot doesn’t boil over. He’s shaking a little in the chair that he’s sitting in. He--he doesn’t know what to do. He hadn’t even noticed JT come into the house until he made some sort of unhappy growl in the back of his throat, and. And he didn’t look happy. And then he left.

He must--he must know. He can’t not know that the baby is his, it’s not like he didn’t know that he was the only person that Tyson was sleeping with. Which--which means that he probably doesn’t want the baby. And _shit_, if Tyson wasn’t crying before (and he honestly doesn’t know if he was or not) he certainly is now. Crap.

He didn’t want JT to find out like this, but a small part of him is glad that at least now he _knows_. He doesn’t like what he knows, but now he knows that JT doesn’t want to be their kid’s dad, and knows for sure that he doesn't want to be his mate, and. Well…

This fucking sucks.

Eventually, Tyson gets himself to get up off the kitchen chair, and retrieves his phone from the kitchen counter where it’s still playing the upbeat playlist he had on spotify, and heads for the couch with a pint of ice cream and the intent of calling Dante. (What he really wants is a bottle of something hard so he can get shitfaced drunk, but it’s not like that’s an option right now.)

Dante picks up on the first ring.

“I thought that you weren’t going to call me until after your appointment?” Dante asks, and the concern in his friend’s voice makes Tyson break down.

“He knows,” Tyson chokes out, and it takes Dante a moment, but Tyson knows the exact moment that Dante picks up on who he is and what he knows.

“Calm down,” Dante says, and maybe betas can’t purr or growl, but every single one that Tyson has met has the best innate ability to calm people down, and Dante is no exception, “tell me what happened.”

“Umm,” he says, and he sniffles a bit, “he came home before he was supposed to, and like, I’m showing now, right?” Dante hums an affirmative, he and Mat have been menaces about demanding pictures of their new niece or nephew, “and my scent’s all different, and I didn’t even know that he was there at first, and then he started _growling_, and it wasn’t a good, sexy growl--” Dante makes a noise at that, which Tyson ignores, “--and then he said something about why this must be why I stopped facetiming him, when he was the one who stopped facetiming me, and then he just--he just left!” And Tyson’s crying again, and he needs to put down his ice cream so he doesn’t get his tears into it, and Dante’s saying more calm, soft words until he calms himself down again.

“--hey, it’s going to be okay.” Dante says, and Tyson hums but can’t actually bring himself to believe him. “I need you to get yourself comfortable with your body pillow, and to calm yourself down. Put on an animal documentary on Netflix. Eat your ice cream. If you need to call me again you can absolutely do that, but I need you to get yourself calmed down, and we’ll deal with this tomorrow, okay? Stressing yourself out isn’t good for the baby.”

By this point, Tyson’s calmed down enough to realize that Dante’s right, and the comment about his baby really seals it. He needs to not panic, and he’ll deal with it. Maybe he thought that JT wouldn’t completely reject the idea of being a dad, but he also still kinda thought that he would actually tell JT. This whole thing wasn’t good, but he needed to not make it worse by being all freaked out.

“That’s it,” Dante encourages, and Tyson sniffles.

“Thanks Dante,” he croaks, and can practically see the way that Dante relaxes a little himself.

“It’s no problem,” he says, “I’m going to call you back tomorrow. If you need to call me again, I’ll pick up, I promise.”

“Thank you,” Tyson says, suddenly really, really grateful that he has a friend like Dante, “love you, bro.”

“Love you too.”

Dante hangs up, and being alone with his thoughts isn’t great, but for now at least ice cream and baby animals will help distract him.

* * *

It takes a couple of rings, but Kerfy picks up.

“Dude, do you know what time it is?” Kerf asks, and JT vaguely picks up that it’s past midnight, which means that it’s probably late in Toronto.

“Sorry--I didn’t--shit,” JT doesn’t even know what he’s doing. Kerf’s in Toronto, and they’re still friends but he probably doesn’t need to deal with JT’s mess.

“No, no--JT, it’s fine. What’s wrong?”

“It’s just. Tyson’s pregnant.” And there’s more to it than that, JT needs to say--

“Hey, that’s not bad is it? I know you guys aren’t mated yet or anything, but this is goo--”

“It’s not mine.”

JT thinks for a hazy second that he must of hit the mute button, or that Kerfy must of hung up on him, but no, he’s still on the other line.

“It’s not--it’s not yours?” Kerf sounds bewildered, and shit. JT thought that he was done tearing up, but here he is, sitting outside a bar in some part of Denver, about to cry again at the tone in Kerfy’s voice.

“I didn’t know until tonight, and like--he’s showing Kerf. Like, showing for real, if it was mine he definitely would have told me by now, and like, he had to have been sleeping with other people this season for him to be that pregnant, and I thought that we were exclusive, and, and--it’s not my kid,” this was obvious to JT by now, but saying the words out loud really make them hit home for him, “I wanted him to be my mate, and it’s not my kid,” JT’s definitely crying now, and fuck. Some guy is staring at him as they wait for someone outside the bar, and JT may be drunk, but he knows the looks someone gives a hockey player when they recognize them. Shit, this is not a good night.

Kerf’s voice is soft and gentle, coaxing JT out of his drunken rambles and spiraling thoughts, and it takes a few minutes for JT to actually pick up on what he’s saying.

“--hey, it’s going to be okay. You need to get home, and get in bed, and take an aspirin and drink some gatorade, and talk to Josty in the morning. C’mon. Put me on speaker and let’s get you an uber, okay buddy? Don’t make me call Gabe.”

“Don’t call Gabe,” JT grumbles, and puts Kerfy on speaker and opens the uber app.

* * *

Tyson is, at Dante’s urging, curled up with his body pillow in bed when his phone starts ringing. Before he actually looks at the screen he kinda assumes that it’s going to be Mat, because while Tyson himself might not have called or texted Mat about the whole JT thing, Tyson knows his friends well enough to know that Mat, and by extension, probably Tito, probably already know.

To his surprise however, it’s Kerfy’s contact photo on the screen, not the bad one he took of Mat during their last weekend together up at the lake. He picks up though, because it’s Kerf.

“Hey Kerf.”

“Hey Josty,” Kerf sounds tense, which in turn makes Tyson tense. Shit, did JT talk to him? Is Kerfy mad at him too? After a moment’s silence, Kerfy starts talking again.

“So like, two things. Firstly, just because we don’t live together anymore doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t tell me that you’re pregnant,” and crap. He’s talked to JT, Tyson sits himself up, and opens his mouth to reply, but Kerfy keeps on talking. “And secondly, why did I just get a phone call from a very drunk and very upset JT about how you let another alpha knock you up?”

And… Tyson doesn’t exactly know how to reply to that.

“...what? I didn’t let someone else knock me up,” Tyson swallows back the lump in his throat and forces himself to keep on talking, “he just walked in, saw that I was pregnant, and walked back out. He didn’t even let me say anything, he just left and made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want to be my mate and my baby’s real dad, and now I think that I have to move out, but I don’t know where to because I don’t want to live with one of the other alphas on the team, but I don’t want to live by myself either, and other Tyson like swapped houses with Kadri when you guys were traded, and that means that I’m going to have to live with _EJ_\--” Tyson is fully aware that he’s babbling again, but at this point it’s just as much a self-defence mechanism as anything. Kerfy might not be _his _alpha, but Kerf is still an alpha, and Tyson really doesn’t want him to be upset with him too.

Kerf is quiet for a minute.

“Alexander?”

“Yeah Tys?”

“Are you mad at me?”

Kerf sighs. “I’m not mad at you. But I do think that you and JT really need to talk to each other, and I’m kinda upset that you didn’t tell me that you were pregnant before now.”

“That’s fair. And I do want to talk to him, it’s just--he didn’t let me say anything earlier. I know that I should have told him when I first found out, but I didn’t want this to happen, and now it has, and--” Tyson hears the front door open from downstairs, and what sounds like JT stumbling around downstairs. “He’s back, I should go talk--”

“Not tonight,” Kerfy cuts him off, and Tyson flops back down on the bed, “he’s drunk Tyson. Wait until the morning when he’s sober again.” Tyson knows that Kerfy’s right, even though he really just wants JT not to be upset with him anymore. Even having JT flat out reject him would be better than this.

“Fine, I’ll talk to him in the morning instead.”

“That sounds better. Now go to bed Josty, and send me a copy of the ultrasound, eh?”

* * *

When Tyson stumbles out of bed the next morning, JT’s bedroom door is open, and the bed empty. Crap. He’s probably left already, and that means that Tyson won’t be able to talk to him--and when Tyson makes it downstairs, there JT is, passed out on the couch.

“Thank fuck,” Tyson mutters under his breath, and walks backwards as quietly as he can into the kitchen, where he starts both the coffee pot and the kettle. Maybe he can’t drink coffee, but it probably wouldn’t hurt his conversation with JT if Tyson can make sure that at least one of them is properly caffeinated.

When the kettle and coffee pot are both set, he also digs the pancake mix out of the cabinet, and the bacon out of the fridge and sets about making both. Like the coffee, the food probably won’t hurt. JT’s probably going to be hungover, and Tyson is self-aware enough to know that he (and JT) both have a tendency to be grumpy when they’re hungry.

He just wants this to be as painless as possible, even though he knows that he’s about to be dumped. Can you even get dumped from being fuckbuddies? Tyson might have thought last season that they were going to be more than that, but by now he knows the score. He might be in love with JT, and he might be pregnant with his baby, but JT doesn’t want either of those things, but maybe he’ll keep being Tyson’s friend. It would be tough for sure, and he’d probably still want to move out, but if they could keep on being friends that would be better than nothing.

He’s on his second mug of tea (it’s decaf, but still black tea in an attempt to trick his brain into thinking that’s he’s getting caffeine) when he hears JT moving in the other room, and listens as he hears him get up and go to the bathroom, and as his footsteps get louder on the way to the kitchen. He put the last of the bacon on the two plates he has in front of him, and goes to place them at their seats at the table before topping off his tea and he pours JT a mug of coffee that he carries with him back to the table, where he sits.

JT stares at him for a few long moments, blinking and rubbing his eyes a few times, before walking over to the table himself.

“So I should apologize for not letting you speak last night before storming out, but also I don’t know what I can say right now.” Tyson passes the mug of coffee to JT, who smiles in thanks and takes a sip before sitting down across from him at the table. Tyson takes a sip of his own tea, and absently places a hand on his stomach, stroking his thumb back and forth where he can feel the flutters in his stomach that he now knows are the baby moving around.

“I’m sorry for not telling you about the baby as soon as I found out,” Tyson says, and oh, apparently that’s what it takes to make JT look him in the eyes, “I’ve known for almost three months, and it’s your baby too, so--”

“--it’s my baby too?” JT cuts him off, and Tyson bites his lip and tries really hard not to let his eyes water.

“Why do you even need to ask that? Who else’s baby could it even be?” he asks, and now JT won’t meet his eyes again, which is just great.

“I don’t know, but you didn’t tell me, and I know that you don’t feel the same way as I do, so I guess it wasn’t that far a stretch to think that maybe I wasn’t the only alpha that you were hooking up with.”

Tyson doesn’t even know where to start with that one, and yep, his eyes are definitely watering now.

“What do you mean I don’t feel the same way as you?” is what he goes with, and by the way JT tenses a little, Tyson isn’t quite sure that he wants to know. “Because I get that you don’t love me back, but it kinda sucks that you seem to think that if you did and wanted to actually do this for real that I would sleep around on you. Because that’s kinda what it feels like you’re saying.” And shit. Tyson’s crying for real now, and fuck. He shoves his chair away from the table and goes to stand by the sink, trying really hard to keep himself from shaking too much or making ugly noises, because this fucking blows. He hears JT’s own chair move, and JT get up, and thinks that he must be walking away when he feels a hand gently rest on his shoulder.

“It’s fine JT. Just like, leave me alone, okay? I can get over this… and then I can like, see if I can crash in EJ’s spare room. It’ll be fine. I’ll stop getting my feelings all over you, and not make you deal with the baby. It’ll be fine. I’ll find somewhere else to live during the season, and that way I won’t be kicking you out of your own house, and--” He’s blabbering now, and is definitely not turning around, even though JT’s not moving his hand, and at some point he needs to stop talking and actually do what he’s saying he will and get out of this fucking house.

“That’s not what I meant Tys.” JT’s voice is barely above a whisper, and he sounds, well he sounds fucking gutted. He sounds worse than he did when they got knocked out of the playoffs, and worse than he did when they finally talked after Kerf was traded, and worse than any other time Tyson can remember hearing his voice. “Will you please turn around?”

Tyson shakes his head at that, because JT may sound gutted, but Tyson doesn’t think he can look at him right now. He can hear JT take another deep breath, and tenses himself to hear what JT actually meant.

“I love you too Tyson.”

And… what?

“I didn’t mean that I knew that you liked me and thought that you’d sleep around on someone. I know you. I _know _that you wouldn’t do that. I just thought that you didn’t love me back, and when I saw you here yesterday, with the bump, I just thought that it couldn’t be mine, because you didn’t tell me, and that fucking sucked.”

Tyson turns around.

JT’s eyes look red, and the expression on his face looks about as wrecked as Tyson feels right now.

“I should have told you. But I was scared that you wouldn’t want me and the baby, so I didn’t, and that was wrong. But I love you too, so much.” And with that he pulls JT into the tightest hug that he can manage with the bump between them, ducking his head down to the crook of JT’s neck so he can inhale his scent, and tilting his own back after a minute so JT can do the same. They stand like that for a while before the both pull back just far enough for them to lean back in and let their mouths meet in a kiss.

* * *

If you asked him last night what he would spend this afternoon doing, JT isn’t sure exactly what his answer would be, but it wouldn’t be this. He and Tyson are curled up together in Tyson’s bed--their bed maybe? They should talk about that--JT’s knot keeping them in place, but the urgency from their last round of sex having dissapated. JT’s hand is resting on Tyson’s stomach, where the swell from _their baby _is clearly visible, his skin soft and warm to the touch.

“I can feel them moving,” Tyson says, breaking the quiet. JT startles a little of that, and feels a sharp pang of disappointment when he realizes that he won’t be able to feel them move for a couple of weeks more.

JT presses a kiss to Tyson’s neck, where the bonding bite he made less than an hour ago is clearly visible, and takes a moment before he speaks.

“Do you know when we get to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?” he asks, and Tyson shifts a little, but answers.

“At my next appointment I think. The baby might not cooperate though, my mom said that I didn’t when she was pregnant with me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, apparently I just refused to move whenever they did an ultrasound, and eventually she just gave up on trying to find out before I was born.” The conversation dies down again, the room is quiet, and it’s comfortable--something that JT didn’t think that he’d ever get to have again.

“I’m sorry.”

JT blinks, not having expected Tyson to speak. He opens his mouth to reply when Tyson barrels forward.

“I should have told you as soon as I found out. I’m glad that we’re where we are right now, but it wasn’t fair to you, and me being scared and not liking to talk about my feelings isn’t a good excuse.”

JT is a little bit taken aback, because while he loves Tyson, flaws and all, he honestly kinda expected their conversation about this earlier to have been the end of this. Neither of them has ever been particularly keen on talking about the important stuff. Though, JT supposes, that is what got them into this mess, and since they’re going to be parents they should probably set a better example for their kid.

“It wasn’t fair,” JT says, but continues before Tyson can take it the wrong way. Again. “But I should have been upfront about how I feel about you from the beginning. I’ve wanted this--us, me biting you, a future--for a really long time now, and I shouldn’t have went on that date with that friend of Zach’s, I shouldn’t have let you think that this wasn’t permanent to me, and I definitely shouldn’t have stepped back this summer. I’m sorry too.”

It’s quiet after that for a while. JT honestly can’t remember the last time he had a conversation like this about his feelings, and honestly it’s about damn time.

“I love you, and I’m really happy that we’re having this kid together” he says, later, when his knot’s gone down and he and Tyson are cuddling again, his head resting on Tyson’s shoulder.

He can’t see Tyson’s face, but knows without a doubt that he’s smiling too.

“I’m really happy too.”

**Author's Note:**

> The next morning Dante, Mat, and Tito burst into Tyson and JT's house, having spent the past twelve hours making travel arrangements and stewing in their anger at JT, just to find the pair curled up together in bed, blissed out from another round of make-up/newly mates sex.
> 
> If you notice any weird jumps in sentences where it seems like a word or two is missing, please let me know, Ao3 ate my italics when I copied the work over, and while I think I replaced all of them, there's always a chance that I missed something.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Consequential](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21082043) by [eafay70](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70)


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